Charlie and Lola: I'm Just Not Keen on Spiders - Lauren Child > Reviews (1)

From ever since I can remember my younger daughter has been a huge fan of Charlie and Lola, a delightful brother and sister act created by Lauren Child. Charlie is the older somewhat wiser brother whereas Lola is his younger,scattier and, at times, slightly annoying sister. In all of the stories about them, Lola generally has a problem which Charlie has to sort out. In this book her problem is spiders and the fact that she's not very keen on them.

Lola starts by saying that she does not like spiders because they are always dangling and running about and you never know what they will do next. Added to that they are very big and hairy. Charlie very rationally explains that the spiders are probably much more afraid of Lola and that they are really quite clever and can weave amazingly strong webs! Obviously Charlie talks a lot of sense because by the end Lola also agrees that they are amazing and when Charlie offers to put the spider outside she tells him not to because she is going to have a spider tea party in the spider house she has made.

As you can see it really is a very short and sweet story but it is perfect for young children. The topic is one that lots of children (and grown ups too) will identify with and it could help some overcome their own fear of spiders. The language is very straightforward and accessible and is mainly made up of dialogue between the brother and sister. The dialogue is fantastic and Lola has that amazing type of phraseology that only a small childcan get away with. Knowing the TV series quite well, it is always a challenge to achieve the voices of both Charlie and Lola but both my girls tell me I do a pretty good job.

Every Charlie and Lola story always starts in the same way:

'I have this little sister Lola.

She is small and very funny.'

This is great for small children because from the very start the book is familiar and reassuring. My daughter is always very happy to join in and even though she did not know this book, she did not really need me to read these first couple of lines.

Lauren Child's illustrations of Charlie and Lola are wonderful. They both have a slightly unkempt look with straggly blonde hair and big enquiring eyes. You just want to give them both a great big hug. We love picking out all of Lola's anticsin all of the pictures. She reminds me in many ways of my own two daughters who are both as full of fun as she is. On each page the illustrations match the text perfectly and really lift the humourfrom the words. There is an added bonus though as each illustration can actually be detached to become a twelve piece jigsaw. My daughter was delighted with these and has whiled away a few happy hours makingand re-making these. I'm very impressed with the quality of the puzzles particularly because they fit back into the pages perfectlywhich does not always happen with the other jigsaw books we have.

This is an excellent book to share with young children and I would say that three is probably the optimum age. The story is one they can relate to and the puzzles are well with in their range. Above all though, it's a story about Charlie and Lola and I've yet to meet a child who does not love both of them!

This review has previously appeared under my name at www.thebookbag.co.uk